Executive Director Early Years

The organisation

Meli is a Victorian not for profit organisation supporting people and strengthening communities. Meli's Early Years portfolio is dedicated to giving children the strongest possible start in life and supporting families during the most formative years of a child's development. The portfolio brings together a range of services that support children's learning, development, wellbeing and participation, while helping families build capability, confidence and connection within their communities.

Having brought together two long established organisations, Meli has built strong foundations as a unified organisation and is entering an exciting new phase of growth and transformation. Its focus is now on strengthening connection, consistency and impact across its services while building the capability needed to respond to changing community needs. For Early Years, this means building on the reach and reputation of an established portfolio while creating a more consistent approach to quality, educational practice and the experience of children, families and staff. It also means supporting Meli's broader strategic commitment to enhancing outcomes for people who engage with us, being a dynamic and learning organisation, and acting as an agent for positive system change.

Meli is committed to creating environments where children, families and staff feel safe, respected, valued and that they belong. Diversity, inclusion and cultural safety are fundamental to how Meli works and to the communities it serves.

The opportunity

Reporting to the CEO and serving on Meli's Executive Team, the Executive Director, Early Years will lead a portfolio spanning 34 kindergartens, early childhood supports and other Early Years learning programs. Working with the recently appointed Director of Children's Services, managers and pedagogical leaders, you will set direction, develop leadership capability and strengthen performance across the portfolio. These services reach communities across Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and Colac Otway. You will also contribute to decisions across Meli's broader network of community programs and present strategic advice and reporting on performance, risk and opportunities to the Meli Kindergartens Board.

The Executive Director will:

• Deliver strategic growth that responds to community need and strengthens the long term sustainability of Early Years services.
• Establish a consistent, high quality approach to education and practice across the kindergartens, while supporting each service’s connection to its community.
• Develop leaders and teams, building commercial capability, accountability and confidence to use evidence and data in decision making.
• Strengthen connected supports for children and families, alongside partnerships, quality, safety and measurable outcomes.

About you

You are an accomplished executive leader with experience guiding complex services or organisations through growth, transformation and continuous improvement. You bring strong commercial and financial acumen, sound judgement and the ability to translate strategy into clear outcomes for leaders and teams.

You will be a visible, empathetic and values aligned leader who builds connection, inspires action and creates an inclusive and accountable culture. Comfortable operating at both enterprise and portfolio level, you will contribute to organisation wide decisions while empowering experienced operational and practice leaders to deliver.

Experience in Early Years will be valued but is not essential. Meli welcomes executives from community services, health, education, children's services or other relevant regulated environments who can demonstrate:

• Executive leadership within a complex service delivery organisation.
• Experience driving strategic growth, organisational performance and sustainable outcomes.
• Strong governance, risk, regulatory and stakeholder management capability.
• A record of developing leaders and embedding commercial thinking without compromising service quality or social impact.
• A relevant tertiary or postgraduate qualification in human services, community services, children's services, business, management or a related discipline.

What's on Offer

• A significant executive mandate with genuine scope for social impact.
• The opportunity to shape the growth and quality of a substantial Early Years portfolio.
• Influence across Meli as a member of its Executive Team.
• An established operational and pedagogical leadership structure.
• Competitive executive remuneration, salary packaging and a motor vehicle option.
• Five weeks of annual leave and flexible working arrangements.

Please note applicants must have a legal right to work in Australia.

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